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CompTIA Network+ (N10-009)Network TroubleshootingEasy

A technician needs to verify that a domain's mail exchange (MX) records are correctly configured and also wants to see the authoritative name server response directly, bypassing local resolver cache. Which tool is BEST suited for this task?

  1. Atracert
  2. Bnslookup
  3. Cping
  4. Ddig
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: D. dig

The dig command provides detailed, low-level DNS query information, including the ability to query a specific authoritative name server directly and view all record types such as MX records, making it more powerful and flexible than nslookup for this scenario.

Why the other options are wrong

  • A. tracert maps the network path to a host, unrelated to DNS record verification.
  • B. nslookup can query MX records but has more limited output and options compared to dig for querying authoritative servers directly.
  • C. ping tests reachability and latency, not DNS record details.

dig Command

A DNS lookup utility (Domain Information Groper) used to query DNS servers for detailed record information, commonly used on Linux/macOS.

  • Can query specific record types (MX, A, TXT, NS, etc.) with the -t flag
  • Allows querying a specific server directly, e.g., dig @8.8.8.8 domain.com
  • Provides more detailed output than nslookup, including TTL and authority sections

Memory trick: Dig deeper than nslookup for DNS details

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